Treating women in this way?” wrote Russell Brand in his 2007 memoir.
asserted
Brand → treat → memoir
“If this is what I’m telling you, can you imagine what’s being left out?”
asserted
what → tell → you
Following Brand’s conviction for rape and three counts of sexual assault in London on Thursday, yes, we now have some idea.
asserted
we → follow → idea
It is wearyingly certain that he will never be brought to justice for the full extent of his predation and possible other crimes.
asserted
he → bring → predation
Brand was found not guilty of several other charges.
asserted
Brand → find → charges
He is now being investigated for two further rape allegations, according to police.
uncertain
He → investigate → police
Brand’s considerable appeal – to women, to his star-struck public and to commercially minded media executives – was his supposed singularity.
asserted
appeal → suppose → executives
With his low-slung jeans and his bouffant hair, he curated an aesthetic that was a mashup of preening rocker, Charles Manson and Jesus, with a strong ironic streak.
asserted
that → curate → streak
“Can’t you see it’s just a joke?” is the bully’s best defence, and all sexual abusers are bullies at heart.
asserted
abusers → see → heart
He rose to prominence as a comedian at the Edinburgh Festival in the early noughties and started touring in 2006.
asserted
He → rise → 2006
His genre of comedy was confessional and shocking, laced with a vulnerability and faux-self-awareness that now looks to be what it always was – the manipulations of a predator.
asserted
it → lace → predator
He was eagerly embraced by the British media, appearing on huge-rating shows on MTV and Channel 4, as well as radio.
asserted
He → embrace → MTV
He performed for Queen Elizabeth.
asserted
He → perform → Elizabeth
In about 2008, he crossed the Atlantic to make his fortune in Hollywood, even marrying a pop star, Katy Perry.
asserted
he → cross → star
Brand’s charisma was powerful, and he had a pseudo-intellectualism which endeared him to the progressive press.
asserted
which → have → press
He had a column in The Guardian and guest-edited The New Statesmen.
asserted
He → have → Statesmen
His evident intelligence amounted, mostly, to an ability to read people well and beguile them, often with a view to exploiting them.
asserted
intelligence → amount → them
It was not surprising that he turned to YouTube Christian shamanery after the entertainment world had largely dumped him.
asserted
world → turn → him
A friend of mine, Jo Robb, is part of a group called the Henley Mermaids, which agitates against sewage pollution in the Thames.
asserted
which → call → Thames
She had dealings with Brand when he took up their cause, as a member of the local community.
asserted
he → have → community
Before he moved to Florida, Brand, his wife and their children lived in a house at Henley-on-Thames.
asserted
Brand → move → Thames
Robb told me Brand paraded before her and her fellow middle-aged-women-activists in his home in low-slung jeans which showed his pubic hair, his shirt open.
asserted
shirt → tell → hair
She initially thought he would be useful in drawing attention to their cause, before realising “he was using us”.
asserted
he → think → us
“He latched onto this campaign … it provided him with cover ahead of what I think he knew was coming out,” she told me on Friday.
asserted
she → latch → Friday
Brand’s public involvement with the Mermaids was in late 2022, by which time he would have known journalists were investigating him.
asserted
journalists → know → him
Like all practised, powerful sex pests, from Harvey Weinstein to Jeffrey Epstein, to Rolf Harris, Don Burke and Jimmy Saville (I could go on, but I won’t go on), Brand operated with increasing impunity but retained a reptilian instinct for picking his marks.
uncertain
Brand → practise → marks
He was comfortably enabled by powerful systems and by the people he made money for.
asserted
he → enable → money
His business model was to hide in the open.
asserted
model → hide → open
His entire comedic brand was about his sexual incontinence and compulsive need to sexually dominate women, with a sideline in edgy past heroin use.
asserted
brand → dominate → use
He was named “shagger of the year” three times by The Sun newspaper.
asserted
He → name → newspaper
His career in exploitation followed the same trajectory as other famous sex pests.
asserted
career → follow → pests
Women warned other women about it.
asserted
Women → warn → it
The powerful men (and occasional women) in a position to intervene, did nothing.
asserted
men → intervene → nothing
And so he carried on.
asserted
he → carry → ?
In 2017, the same year the first #metoo story was published in The New York Times about film producer Harvey Weinstein, comedian Katherine Ryan confronted Brand about his sexual predation on camera, as they both participated in a Comedy Central show called “Roast Battle”.
asserted
they → publish → show
Her remarks were not broadcast, but in 2018 Ryan spoke to broadcaster Louis Theroux about the comedian she had called out to his face.
asserted
she → broadcast → face
They didn’t name Brand – it was too risky.
asserted
it → name → Brand
“It’s very dangerous to have this conversation,” Ryan told Theroux.
asserted
Ryan → ’ → Theroux
“It is a litigious minefield, ’cause lots of people have tried to nail this person down for their alleged crimes and this person has very good lawyers, so am I going to put my mortgage on the line by saying who this person is?”
asserted
person → try → line
She said the man’s behaviour was an “open secret”.
asserted
behaviour → say → ?
…and 10 more, not listed.
The Aporia
